The Full Belmonte, 1/25/2024
Haley fights on in South Carolina after Trump wins New Hampshire
“Nikki Haley is holding a rally tonight in South Carolina, her home state and the next contest on the primary calendar, as she fights on despite her double-digit loss to Donald Trump in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Republican primary.
The former president cruised to victory, with 54.4% of the vote to Haley’s 43.3%, NBC News has projected.
In his victory speech, Trump slammed Haley for staying in the race. ‘She didn’t win. She lost,’ Trump said in his victory speech, calling Haley an ‘impostor’ who did very poorly.”
‘New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation,’ Haley told supporters after her loss. ‘This race is far from over.’
South Carolina’s GOP primary is a full month away on Feb. 24.” [NBC News]
Biden endorsed by UAW as he turns focus to general election
“President Joe Biden picked up an endorsement from the United Auto Workers today, as he turns his attention to a likely rematch against former President Trump.
After Trump’s win in New Hampshire, Biden essentially declared the general election season is underway.
‘It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee,’ Biden said in a statement. ‘And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher.’
Biden’s campaign doubled-down on a press call with reporters today, saying ‘Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination,’ and that voters now have a ‘clear choice.’
As the president looks to make abortion rights a central issue in this election, First Lady Jill Biden has invited Kate Cox, the Texas woman at the center of a high-profile abortion case, to be her guest at the State of the Union address on March 7, the White House said.” [NBC News]
Ohio lawmakers vote to override governor’s veto of ban on gender-affirming care for minors
“The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. The ban is set to take effect in 90 days.
House Bill 68 would bar transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care and would prevent transgender girls and women from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams.”
Read More at CNN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP)
Qatar, key mediator in sensitive Israel-Hamas talks, lashes out at Netanyahu over critical remarks
“Qatar said it was appalled Wednesday by leaked remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he criticized the Arab country’s mediation efforts with Hamas, complicating already arduous negotiations meant to halt the hostilities in exchange for a release of hostages. Read more.
Why this matters:
Qatar, along with Egypt, is working on a new agreement that could set free more hostages, and potentially offer some respite in the devastating 3-month war. But officials say the gap between the two sides is still wide, and the spat between Netanyahu and Qatar could rattle negotiations.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said his government was ‘appalled’ by the reported remarks but that they were ‘not surprising.’ If the remarks are confirmed, Netanyahu ‘would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,’ Majed al-Ansari said.” [AP News]
No Pauses. No Progress.
Smoke billows over Khan Yunis in southern Gaza during an Israeli bombardment on Jan. 24.AFP
“A United Nations training center sheltering hundreds of Palestinians in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip was set ablaze on Wednesday when it was reportedly struck by Israeli tank shells. At least nine people were killed and 75 others injured, Thomas White, the director of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Asked about the shelling, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the wider area of western Khan Younis where the facility is located is the target of an ongoing operation aimed at ‘dismantling Hamas’s military framework’ there. This week, the operation saw IDF troops storm and arrest medical staff at al-Khair General Hospital and Israeli tanks surround al-Amal Hospital, which also serves as the Palestinian Red Crescent’s headquarters in the city. Israeli officials continue to accuse Hamas of working in and around Khan Younis medical centers, which it denies, and the IDF believes the city hosts the principal headquarters for the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attack.
The Israeli military on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of the area, where half a million people are said to be located, amid the escalating fighting. However, local reports said IDF tanks advancing toward Khan Younis were blocking the primary escape route. More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
On Wednesday, Israeli government spokesperson Ilana Stein denied reports that a 30-day cease-fire with Hamas was in the works. ‘Israel will not give up on the destruction of Hamas, the return of all the hostages, and there will be no security threat from Gaza towards Israel,’ Stein said. ‘There will be no cease-fire. In the past, there were pauses for humanitarian purposes. That agreement was breached by Hamas.’
Officials familiar with the negotiations told Reuters that Hamas leaders have said they would not back any agreement that fails to lay out conditions for a future permanent cease-fire. ‘We are open to all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete pullout from Gaza Strip,’ senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Monday.
“On strike. Argentina’s largest labor union, the opposition-aligned General Confederation of Labor (CGT), launched a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest President Javier Milei’s proposed economic overhauls. Tens of thousands of union members across major industries—including the transportation, health care, food services, and banking sectors, among others—argued that Milei’s proposed reforms would weaken worker protections.
The demonstration comes just 45 days after Milei took office, marking the first major challenge to the president’s fiscal reforms. Milei said he will dock one day’s pay from every public employee on strike and make the CGT pay the bill for Wednesday’s police deployment.” [Foreign Policy]
“Fatal plane crash. Russia accused Ukraine of shooting down a military transport plane carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, that crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod border region of Russia, killing all on board. Moscow said two missiles launched from Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast were responsible for the crash. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.
The Kremlin said the Ukrainian soldiers were en route to a prisoner swap, an event that Kyiv confirmed was set to occur. The general staff headquarters of Ukraine’s military did not comment on the crash but said Ukraine targets Russian military planes believed to be transporting missiles. ‘The armed forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy delivery means and control the airspace to eliminate the terrorist threat, including on the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction,’ the agency said. It is unclear if any of the people killed were in fact Ukrainian prisoners of war.” [Foreign Policy]
“Battling Iranian proxies. U.S. forces destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed at the Red Sea in Yemen on Wednesday, saying they posed an “imminent threat” to commercial vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region. This was Washington’s latest operation in a series of strikes against the Iranian-backed militant group in response to its ongoing attacks on commercial ships in the region. Since Jan. 11, the U.S. Defense Department said it has destroyed or damaged more than 25 Houthi missile facilities and more than 20 Houthi missiles.
U.S. troops also targeted three facilities in Iraq that the Pentagon said were being used by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Islamist group, on Tuesday. As many as seven militant members were killed. The strikes were in retaliation for a ‘serious of escalatory attacks’ against Washington and its allied forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.” [Foreign Policy]
“Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was hoping for the adventure of a lifetime last Friday when he used the presidential helicopter to attend a Coldplay concert. Manila is known for its notorious traffic jams, and with 40,000 fans rushing to the stadium, the president’s security said waiting in line could pose a security threat. Locals criticized Marcos for wasting taxpayer money and causing many traffic hassles himself. But for Marcos, a self-proclaimed ‘music lover,’ the British rock band was ‘unmissable.’ Viva la vida, Bongbong.” [Foreign Policy]
“President Paul Kagame delivered a message this week to Rwanda’s critics: ‘I don’t need permission from anybody to do what we have to do to protect ourselves.’
He was referring to allegations by United Nations experts and the US State Department that the African nation has been a major party to the proxy wars that have killed and displaced millions in the east of neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
But he could have been talking about the alleged assassinations of dissidents, human-rights abuses and lack of political opposition that critics decry.
His supporters maintain that the administration is determined to prevent a repeat of 30 years ago, when the then-Rwandan government orchestrated a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people, mostly from Kagame’s Tutsi ethnic group.
He led a rebel army to liberate the country and has been in charge ever since. Kagame’s reelection in July is all but guaranteed — he’s never won less than 93% of the vote. While critics complain, supporters point to the remarkable economic transformation over which he’s presided, turning a country essentially left for dead into one of Africa’s most developed.
Western partners see how their money is spent on infrastructure rather than lining ministers’ pockets and what is arguably the continent’s best-trained army can do — save TotalEnergies’ $20 billion LNG project in Mozambique from jihadis, for example.
Yet the tension between Rwanda’s gains and how it’s achieved them is what makes the country so polarizing.
Just ask British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose government has struck a deal with Kagame to take in migrants in exchange for hundreds of millions of pounds.
Rwanda now finds itself in the middle of a political firestorm in the UK. Kagame’s response is typically unapologetic: If the deal falls through, he’ll give the money back.” — Neil Munshi [Bloomberg]
Kagame at a campaign rally in 2017. Photographer: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
Only 250,000 Holocaust survivors remain
Sandy Gurowski hugs her husband Manny Gurowski, 91, a child survivor of the Holocaust, as they pose in their home on Jan. 26 in Delray Beach, Fla. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“Only about 250,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive worldwide, Axios' Russell Contreras writes from a new demographic survey.
Why it matters: Most of the living survivors were children during the Holocaust — making them the last generation who will be able to speak firsthand about the horrors they experienced.
Advocates are racing to record these survivors' stories, preserving them for future generations to hear — an especially urgent task in the face of rising antisemitism.
By the numbers: Roughly half of the survivors live in Israel, while 16% reside in the U.S.
Their median age is 86.”
Share this story. [Axios]
Boeing CEO says company flies “safe planes” as he meets with senators
“Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said the planemaker only allows its planes to fly if it is 100% confident in their safety, before meetings with senators today on Capitol Hill to answer questions about the grounding of its 737 Max 9 planes.
‘We fly safe planes,’ Calhoun told reporters. ‘We don't put planes in the air that we don't have 100% confidence in.’
Boeing has been under intense scrutiny ever since a door plug blew off one of its 737 Max 9 planes operated by Alaska Airlines earlier this month.
In an NBC News Exclusive interview, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said inspections of the carrier's Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after that midair emergency revealed “many” of the aircraft had loose bolts.
‘I'm angry,’ Minicucci said. ‘This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people.’
In another alarming incident, the nose wheel of a Boeing 757 jet fell off and rolled away while the plane was on the runway waiting to takeoff, with nearly 200 people on board in Atlanta on Saturday, according to a preliminary report by the FAA.” [NBC News]
Gutting layoffs
Mario Tama/Getty Images
“The Los Angeles Times, Time, and National Geographic became the latest media outlets to do a gutting wave of layoffs this week, letting go journalists who cover everything from the 2024 election to sports to business accountability.
These cuts add to thousands of others that have occurred since last year as media outlets struggle to grow their audiences and update their revenue models. The layoffs have decimated coverage of critical issues across numerous publications.
At the LA Times, more than 20 percent of the newsroom has been laid off, with these cuts disproportionately impacting young Black, Latino, and Asian American writers, according to the LA Times union. And at Time, about 15 percent of the unionized editorial staff has been laid off, its union said. As of Wednesday, it was not immediately clear how many people had been affected at National Geographic.
This week's cuts are part of a new round of layoffs in media and tech this winter. Condé Nast, NBC News, Sports Illustrated, and our own Vox Media are among the media companies that have conducted layoffs in the last few months. In tech, Google, Spotify, Discord, and eBay are among the companies that have done the same.
According to the employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, 2023 was the worst year for news media layoffs in years, surpassing the number of cuts the industry saw in both 2022 and 2021. Tech similarly had a high number of layoffs that year compared to the prior year. Though both industries have been hit particularly hard, the cuts have also been driven by different factors:
What’s driving layoffs in media: Media layoffs have taken place as advertising revenue has declined and as advertisers increasingly invest ad dollars in tech platforms instead of news publications. Some newsrooms have struggled to keep readers amid these declines. And acquisitions by hedge funds and large corporations have also fueled job losses and consolidation.
What’s driving layoffs in tech: Tech companies have made cuts as they make new investments in virtual reality and AI, shift resources away from other initiatives, and continue to roll back some of the hiring they made during the pandemic. Higher interest rates have also made it more expensive for companies to borrow, meaning less funding to grow in the near term. And companies are using layoffs to juice metrics important to investors.
The state of the labor market overall: The developments in these two areas aren’t necessarily indicative of the broader state of the labor market, which varies by industry. ‘These layoffs are still a small percentage of the overall employment in the United States,’ Cory Stahle, a labor economist at Indeed, tells Vox. Health care, education, and government are among the fields adding jobs, adds Glassdoor economist Daniel Zhao.” [Vox]
Jim Harbaugh leaving Michigan to become head coach of Chargers
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